To move into roles outside of IT with their current employers, CIOs will need strong successors in place. "Businesses are often reluctant to have their CIO move out of their role completely," says Chuck Pappalardo, managing director of Trilogy Search Non+Profit. "Because the CIO is so good in their role, the company doesn't want to lose them."
Adds Pickett, "If we don't continue to develop our bench, we may be CIOs for a lot longer than we want to be."
Prediction: More companies will look internally to fill CIO positions.
DuPont appointed its vice president of information technology integrated service delivery, Phuong Tram, to succeed Robert Ridout as CIO when he retires at the end of 2007. American Specialty Health promoted Kevin Kujawa from SVP of IT to EVP and CIO earlier this month. Database marketing company Merkle named its vice president of IT, Barry Smith, as its CIO.
CTPartners' Groce says more companies are grooming internal candidates for the CIO job than looking externally for someone to fill that role because it's so strategic. They want the CIO to be someone who knows the company, understands the industry and has relationships with key business leaders — they don't want an outsider.
Fewer companies are looking externally for CIOs, adds Groce, because the pool of really talented CIOs is so small. "There are fewer CIOs for major CIO roles," he says. "The bar has been raised, and the candidate population has not always kept up with that."
Prediction: More executives with business backgrounds will move into the CIO role.
The career path to becoming CIO is changing. It used to be that a technology professional worked his way up the ladder inside IT organizations to get to there.
But Paul Horowitz, a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers who is in charge of the company's CIO agenda, says he's starting to see a lot more business people moving into the CIO role.
This change is driven by companies' demands for business-focused CIOs who can help enterprises achieve their strategic goals and work on the same level as the rest of the senior leadership team.
It's also a way for companies to groom executives for the CEO post. Horowitz says business people come into the CIO role almost like they're on a tour of duty. Then they go back into the business, and other individuals get rotated through the CIO organization, he adds. The trend gives credibility to the CIO role. It says that being CIO is an important stepping stone on the way to becoming CEO.
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